Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Wishing all of you a relaxing, peaceful, joyful and loving holiday season with your family and friends.   

I will be taking a 2 week break from the blog so I will see you again in the New Year.

Here are some of my favorite holiday decorations.  My handmade button wreath.  All my special Xmas cards that past students have given me.  Let's see, I see one from Jan Yeh, Mark Bayua (spelling?), and Breeana Johng.  I have them on display throughout my home/studio.

Below is a close-up of alumni Victoria Au's tiny felt ornaments and Flora Li's beaded angel that they made for me on the little Xmas tree.

All the ornaments on my tree below were either made by my children, my students, my mother, myself, or favorite artists.  Each holds a special place in my heart.

Unfortunately my tree has vanished into cyber-land and it won't come back.  I'm just not savvy enough yet to figure everything out with all the functions on this blog.  If you really want to see it chick on Xmas 2010 and know that my tree looks pretty much the same except this year it's a little smaller.  :) 

The small tree below has other cherished ornaments by artists Leslie McCabe, Judy Coats Perez, and myself. 

              

A close up 

And our sweet, lovely tree at Jimmy's place adored with many of my mother's antique bulbs, Danielle's Xmas angel at the top that she made in kindergarten, and the beautiful and colorful handmade ornaments that Julie brought me last Xmas from New York.

A very special Xmas wish to my in-laws, Bette and Vinny, in Hobe Sound Florida.  Wishing we could all be together this Xmas.  Stay well.   Jim, Danielle, Zach, Julie, Mike and I send you our love.

And Happy New Year!!!!  

Thanksgiving 2011 - My Family

I have so many things to be thankful for this year, especially now at the Holiday Season.  This Thanksgiving we were all able to celebrate together, my kids, my husband Jim and my ex, Inars.  This was a first and worked out really well.  We will be doing the same for Xmas Eve and Day, with Jim's daughter Julie and her husband Mike joining us for our reindeer games.

Of course we played several games of scrabble, all the while Dani and I where knitting away on our projects or helping out in the kitchen.

My ex did most of the cooking inside while I bar-b-qued the turkey outside in garlic, rosemary, onion and lemon juice.  It was actually one of my better birds, very moist.

I got a chance to relax and get to know my son's girlfriend Bree a little better...

But most of all, I'm most thankful for my two beautiful babies below.

Zach and Dani are the best thing I've ever done.

Follow your hearts and be happy, I'll always be there for you.

My Work - Felt Pouches

Most every year that I've taught felt embrodiered pouches to my Beginning 3-d kiddos, I make a piece right along with them so I can demonstrate the steps along the way.  The works here are some of my better ones from over the last couple of years, and are currently for sale at the Drawing Board in Yorba Linda.  

If you haven't had a chance to drop in yet, it's a really cool, eclectic mix of crafts, fine art, graphic design and photography.

Give me your feedback if you do get a chance to stop in.

Wire Pendants - Student Work

I can't seem to show you enough from my beginning 3-d kids.  These wire wrapped pendants came out so well.  I was especially impressed with how a couple of the kids used hardware parts in their work.  Junior Sara Shams did this amazing piece above.  I love how she used both the gold and silver wire in her piece as well as all those seed beds; plus the amount of time and effort it took to build this one.

I felt the most creative was this one above by junior Hannah Park, using up my garage sale hardware findings.  I'm thinking of only having the kids use the findings next year.  Thanks Hannah for your inspiration!

Below we have junior Sheila San Agustin and junior Ashley Chowdhury, both doing a wonderful job with the wire assignment.

Another of my favorites was made by senior Jerrie Rui with the shell angel below.  Very clever to add those wings Jerrie!

And junior Alice Zhang did the dream piece below.  She like Hannah incorporated some hardware findings into her work.  Love that!

For EXTRA CREDIT, find a small piece of thin wire (paper clip, grocery store twist tie, etc),and twist and bend it into a recognizable shape.  Attach a small piece of paper with your name and period so I can give you extra credit points and hand to me when you walk in the door tomorrow.  On the other side of the piece of paper write down the name of the student who made your favorite wire piece from above.

7th Grade Collage Boxes

Back to my first quarter 7th graders with their sweet and colorful collaged boxes.  This top one by Melissa Ongko was my favorite with the little tent on top and the primary color scheme.  The "Chill" box below was made by Chirag Doshi.  I really like how he put the red with the neutral black, white and grey color scheme.  It really makes his center of interest pop.

Above Jenny Diaz did this adorable kitty box.  All these boxes were made with recycled papers and Mod Podge acrylic matte medium.  An easy, inexpensive project with beautiful results.

More Felt Embroidery Pieces from My Beginners

The pillows from yesterday were made after these gorgeous flat pieces.  These flat works were my 3-d beginners first attempts at embroidery.  The attention to detail, the incredible designs and the amount of time put into these pieces were truly remarkable.  I love these children.  I love my job, look what I get.  Beauty surrounds me all day long!

I want to start with junior Hannah Park whose piece was one of my personal favorites.  Hannah is gifted in 2-d art as well as 3-d.  You saw many of her works last year on the blog.  Below hers is junior Nikki Shah's.  Nikki is another amazing young artist that I've known and been working with since her 7th grade year.  I'm so glad you are back Nikki.

Two up and coming superstars are juniors Sheila San Agustin above and Phoebe Liu below.  I'm really hoping that both these girls will return to me next year for the 2nd level crafts class.  As you can see they are amazing designers and impeccable craftswomen.

Next we have juniors Alice Zhang whose fun pillow was featured yesterday, above, and Sam Arias below.  I've got my fingers crossed that these two younguns will also come back to me.  Alice is new to me this year and I'm quickly discovering her many talents in the arts, and Sam I've been working with since her 7th grade year.  She is also one of my most talented 2-d kids.

The lovely piece above was made by junior Julia Chanco, and was also one of my favorites this year.  I'm hoping it will be for sale at Open House (hint, hint)  :)  Below we see senior Aparna Vancheswaran's work again because everything she stitches is outstanding.  I will be sad to see you graduating Aparna, but Julia you had better come right on back to me LOL

And lastly we have junior Emily Yang whom I'm also getting to know and love.  What a sweet piece this is Emily.  Your stitching is remarkable and I already know that I've bugged you enough that you will be returning next year.

Embroidered Felt Pillow Basics - Student Work

I know you met my new Beginning 3-d crop with their tye-dye pieces last month, well here are a few of their embroidery basics on sweet little felt pillows they made.  They learned about 8 different embroidery stitches, some seed and bugle beading techniques, and how to stuff and close a pillow with no knots showing.

Below we have seniors Shivanti Kariyawasam, Aparna  Vancheswaran, and Megan Machado with Aparna's close up of her front side above.  

Aren't these pieces adorable?  It was really hard to choose which ones to show off.  Above we have juniors Alice Zhang and Sheila San Agustin with junior Ashley Chowdhury and senior Sunny Cheon below.  

Which one do you like the best?  For EXTRA CREDIT on a piece of colored paper cut into a very long strip with your name and period on one side and the name of the person who made your favorite pillow from above on the other side,  roll it into a beautiful blossom like the rose above.  Secure the bloom by twining a piece of string tightly around the bottom and knot it.  You decide if it remains a blossom or spread out the petals for a larger bloom.  Give to me when you walk into room tomorrow.  

Sewing Machine Review w/ Watercolor & Collage

These cuties belong to seniors Kelsea Lee and Nandi Best.  They are the only two in my 3rd year 3-d art class, that's cuz they are very, very good.  They hadn't used the sewing machines since last year so I wanted to make the review fun and colorful.   

I had them do several loose drawings in pen and ink.  Then lay down some paper collage elements.  Then I showed them a few watercolor techniques and off they went.  When everything was dry they used their sewing machines to loosely outline their ink drawings. A close up of Kelsea' s work above.

Nandi's 3 pieces above and below. 

Meet My New 7th Graders

Here they are, my new young ones.  And what a talented, sweet group of kids they are.  So well behaved, such good listeners and hard workers, I'm falling in love all over again.  If you are new to the blog, I get a new crop of 7th graders every 8 weeks.  I try to teach them a bit about design, drawing, watercolor and crafts.  So I start them off with value scales and these were the top 3 turned in.

This top one belongs to Insha Khan.  she's showing me here that she has some innate design skills as well as an understanding of value ranges.   

This next one was done by Tae-Min Shim.  He is showing me such tight, beautiful craftsmanship which is something I stress in all my classes.

And this last lovely one belongs to Kathryn Tolentino.  I miss the old group, but know that I'm really enjoying you new little ones.

One More Value Scale - Student Work

Senior Janice Min recently resubmitted her beginning of the year value scale for me to evaluate for inclusion into our Open House Art Show in April.  After each assignment's class critique and evaluation, I allow my students to take back their pieces and make them even better.  Then they give them back to me for photography and possible consideration for Open House.  If the difference is substantial in the piece their grade will go up if they ask me to re-grade it.  Janice, you made the cut  :)  

Eskimo Kiss Hooded Cocoon

Top View Above

How could I resist this adorable pattern by Tricia Drake in the recent copy of Living Crafts Magazine.  I already had this gorgeous skein of hand dyed blue yarn in my"Can't Live Without It " yarn drawer, but the contrasting yarn for around the hood I had to hand spin with Lori Lawson's hand dyed roving from Capistrano Fiber Arts.  And if anyone is interested in purchasing my hand knit bunting, it is currently for sale at "The Drawing Board Gallery" in Yorba Linda, Ca.  Just give owner Jamie Kough a call at 714-693-7156 and it could be yours  :) 

Side view below.